This invention relates generally to a skate blade and, more particularly, to a skate blade bottom surface profile that enhances skating performance.
Prior skate blades have been designed with bottom surface profiles particularly suitable for the specific activity in which they are to be used. For example, speed skaters generally utilize skate blades with substantially flat bottom surfaces that minimize friction with the ice and thereby improve speed. Conversely, skaters such as figure skaters desiring a high degree of maneuverability prefer blades having a concave transverse cross section extending between cutting edges formed at opposite sides of the blades. The cutting edges penetrate the ice surface to enhance the ability of a skater to maneuver. However, other skaters such as hockey players desire during different stages of play either high speed or good maneuverability and prior hollow ground blades have not optimized both speed and maneuverability which factors are oppositely affected by the degree of concavity ground into a blade.
Other blade designs have been proposed in attempts to compensate for the conflicting objectives of speed and maneuverability. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,100,976 discloses a three part structure including a rounded central blade for smooth travel on an ice surface and straddling beveled side blades each providing a cutting edge for penetration of the ice surface. The side blades are adjustable relative to the central blade so as to facilitate optimization of either "speed skating" or "fancy skating". No adjustment of the disclosed three part blade structure will provide simultaneously, however, a degree of both speed and maneuverability. U.S. Pat. No. 3,292,940 discloses a two part blade structure in which a pair of elongated blades are bolted together to form a single blade. Each of the joined blades has an inwardly and upwardly beveled bottom surface that forms elongated side cutting edges. However, the excessively inclined beveled surfaces reduce attainable skating speed and inadvertently induce excessively abrupt stops that can cause falls and injury. A one piece blade similar to the above described three part blade is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,392,658. The disclosed blade has a longitudinally extending, flat or convex middle face straddled by longitudinally extending acute-angled cutting edges for penetrating an ice surface. Joining the cutting edges and middle face are longitudinally extending edge faces extending upwardly and inwardly therebetween. Although the patent's disclosure contemplates improved maneuverability without a sacrifice of speed, the disclosed blade fails to provide fully satisfactory performance for skaters requiring a high degree of both speed and maneuverability. In addition, the complex profile of the disclosed blade's lower skating surface is difficult to maintain during use.
The object of this invention, therefore, is to provide an improved blade that improves the level of attainable speed and maneuverability on ice skates.